January 2024

New subsea cable project aims to stabilize internet connections in South Pacific

When an underwater volcanic eruption severed a key internet conduit in 2022, the island nation of Tonga lost most of its connection to the outside world for more than a month.  Thanks to a new subsea cable project Google unveiled on January 17, South Pacific islanders are less likely to be cut off from the global internet in the future.

Centering Communities in Arizona's Digital Equity Plan

The Arizona Commerce Authority's draft Digital Equity Plan, released in January 2024, represents the culmination of a year-long, statewide collaborative effort, marked by attentive listening to the voices and feedback of communities across the state.

The Plan for a Connected Illinois

Illinois is home to over 12.7 million individuals in approximately 4.9 million families who speak over 20 languages. These families live in 102 counties that range from the dense urban areas found in Cook, DuPage, and Lake counties to the rural areas in Pope and Stark counties; from Illinois’ manufacturing centers like the Quad Cities, Rockford, and Greater Peoria regions to the farmlands of Gallatin, White, and Sangamon counties. Common to all of these communities and geographies is the way they stay connected to each other and to the broader global community; how they access healthcare, e

N.S.A. Buys Americans’ Internet Data Without Warrants, Letter Says

The National Security Agency buys certain logs related to Americans’ domestic internet activities from commercial data brokers, according to an unclassified letter by the agency. The letter offered few details about the nature of the data other than to stress that it did not include the content of internet communications.

Apple Overhauls App Store in Europe, in Response to New Digital Law

Since Apple introduced the App Store in 2008, it has tightly controlled the apps and services allowed on iPhones and iPads, giving the company an iron grip on one of the digital economy’s most valuable storefronts. Now Apple is weakening its hold on the store, in one of the most consequential signs to date of how new European regulations are changing consumer technology.

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